No one from CEZ accused after police raid in its office - press

Prague, Nov 25 (CTK) - The police, who intervened in the CEZ Czech state-controlled power utility's seat on Tuesday, have accused six persons and one firm of tax evasion and money laundering, but neither any CEZ employees nor the company itself are among them, daily Pravo writes today.

Prague Public Prosecutor's Office spokesman Ales Cimbala told the paper about the accusations on Wednesday.

The CEZ Foundation director and board deputy chairwoman, Michaela Zikova is probably just a witness in the case as the police released her after questioning and did not accuse her, Pravo writes, referring to its trustworthy source.

Detectives from the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) police unit were raiding the CEZ headquarters for several hours on Tuesday, CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz confirmed the information from the iDNES.cz server to CTK.

However, Kriz said the police investigation and search did not directly concern the CEZ.

NCOZ spokesman Jaroslav Ibehej only said the police officers were taking steps in criminal proceedings. He refused to elaborate.

iDNES.cz reported that the police had intervened in the case of tax crimes and corruption and detectives had searched one of the CEZ offices and conducted home searches.

CEZ is the biggest Czech energy firm. Its majority shareholder is the state, holding about 70 percent of its stock via the Finance Ministry. The CEZ net profit for the three quarters of this year dropped by roughly seven billion crowns interannually to 6.7 billion. Its proceeds amounted to 156 billion crowns, about the same as during this period last year.

($1 = 22.758 crowns)

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